Felicity Wood
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 4585632 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Felicity Wood |
| NOMBRES | Felicity |
| APELLIDO | Wood |
| FIRMA | WOOD F |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Fort Hare |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3840-660X |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 11 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 8 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 10 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 1 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1998 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 2 |
Murder Trials and the Dead
Although the focus is very much on the dead during murder trials, the dead themselves are downplayed in various respects. Relegated to the category of the deceased, and reduced to objects for scrutiny by forensic pathologists, police photographers, detectives and the court, the dead are dehumanised. Moreover, the verdict and the sentencing that takes place in the course of the trial, stemming as they do from impersonal legal deliberations, may se…
From rain-bringer to wealth-giver
In this article, I explore the spiritual and supernatural aspects of the snake and the ways in which this being has long been associated with various spiritual presences and forces in certain South African belief systems. For instance, Archibald Campbell Jordan’s The Wrath of the Ancestors and some oral narratives from the Eastern Cape province convey positive, benevolent images of the snake as spiritual emissaries, guardians, and guides. Snakes …
The Mythmaking Surrounding Entrepreneurship and the False Promises of the Mamlambo
Contemporary folklore casts light on and is shaped by the socio-economic milieu from which it arises. This article explores one aspect of this: the metaphorical points of comparison between oral accounts of the mamlambo, a South African wealth-giving spirit, and the mythmaking surrounding the idea of entrepreneurship in present-day South Africa. Such notions of entrepreneurship draw on key capitalist narratives, including the idea that financial …
The cult of the quantifiable
This paper examines the 'fetishism of numbers' (Gudeman, 1998, p.1) that has taken hold in restructured, market-oriented institutions of higher education. As all areas of academic life have been rendered down to the quantifiable, and university environments have become dominated by the rituals of counting, numbers have been imbued with a potency of almost preternatural proportions. The points of comparison between the power ascribed to the numeri…
Supernatural Cities
Far from being a static or eroding cultural inheritance from the past, the supernatural has continually been appropriated and updated to accommodate and express social, cultural, economic and environmental anxieties. Since the Enlightenment, supernatural beliefs and practices have largely been derided as ignorant and un-modern - even anti-modern - and cities, being the ultimate symbol of progress and rationality, have not been thought to harbour …
Kinship, collegiality and witchcraft
Certain South African perceptions of sorcery acquire new resonance when considered in the context of present-day corporatised, managerially governed higher education. Concepts of witchcraft from elsewhere in Africa further illuminate this. Indeed, there are certain striking metaphorical parallels between distinctive trends in the contemporary market-driven academic environment and various perceptions of witchcraft. These include the connections b…
Spirits in the Marketplace
This article explores perceptions of the market in South and West Africa and in the West, undertaking a comparative study of the occult aspects ascribed to it. This illuminates certain long-standing and contemporary forms of folklore: from specific South and West African mystical beliefs and practices to various present-day magicalities in certain regions in Africa and Western free-market capitalist societies. Moreover, certain African and Wester…
Occult innovations in higher education
This study maintains that, as institutions of higher education have converted themselves into corporatised institutions under managerial governance, they have taken on occult qualities. These tendencies are analysed in the light of Jean and John Comaroff's theory of occult economies: wealth‐generating enterprises involved in areas of mystery and magic. Modern universities, it is argued, have become occult economies, and this study examines the wa…
Blood money
This article examines the oral narratives concerning the millionaire herbalist Khotso Sethuntsa's purported ownership of wealth‐giving snakes and his career as a seller of these magical serpents, a practice known as uthwala. It is argued that the uthwala narratives featuring Khotso Sethuntsa (hereafter referred to as the Khotso narratives) are shaped by the specific milieu from which they spring. Particular attention is paid to socioeconomic fact…
The snake in the sky
This study takes as its starting point an event that occurred on the morning of December 15 1998, in Hogsback. Hogsback is a small mountaintop community in the Amatola mountains in the Eastern Cape. Many of the black people who work for the white, land-owning members of the community (who comprise one-sixth of Hogsback's inhabitants) and the artists whose work I examine come from Hala, the village at the bottom of the Hogsback pass. Early every m…
The masters of Pietersburg
Spirits in the Marketplace
This article explores perceptions of the market in South and West Africa and in the West, undertaking a comparative study of the occult aspects ascribed to it. This illuminates certain long-standing and contemporary forms of folklore: from specific South and West African mystical beliefs and practices to various present-day magicalities in certain regions in Africa and Western free-market capitalist societies. Moreover, certain African and Wester…
The snake in the sky
This study takes as its starting point an event that occurred on the morning of December 15 1998, in Hogsback. Hogsback is a small mountaintop community in the Amatola mountains in the Eastern Cape. Many of the black people who work for the white, land-owning members of the community (who comprise one-sixth of Hogsback's inhabitants) and the artists whose work I examine come from Hala, the village at the bottom of the Hogsback pass. Early every m…
Kinship, collegiality and witchcraft
Certain South African perceptions of sorcery acquire new resonance when considered in the context of present-day corporatised, managerially governed higher education. Concepts of witchcraft from elsewhere in Africa further illuminate this. Indeed, there are certain striking metaphorical parallels between distinctive trends in the contemporary market-driven academic environment and various perceptions of witchcraft. These include the connections b…
The masters of Pietersburg
The snake in the sky
This study takes as its starting point an event that occurred on the morning of December 15 1998, in Hogsback. Hogsback is a small mountaintop community in the Amatola mountains in the Eastern Cape. Many of the black people who work for the white, land-owning members of the community (who comprise one-sixth of Hogsback's inhabitants) and the artists whose work I examine come from Hala, the village at the bottom of the Hogsback pass. Early every m…
Blood money
This article examines the oral narratives concerning the millionaire herbalist Khotso Sethuntsa's purported ownership of wealth‐giving snakes and his career as a seller of these magical serpents, a practice known as uthwala. It is argued that the uthwala narratives featuring Khotso Sethuntsa (hereafter referred to as the Khotso narratives) are shaped by the specific milieu from which they spring. Particular attention is paid to socioeconomic fact…
Occult innovations in higher education
This study maintains that, as institutions of higher education have converted themselves into corporatised institutions under managerial governance, they have taken on occult qualities. These tendencies are analysed in the light of Jean and John Comaroff's theory of occult economies: wealth‐generating enterprises involved in areas of mystery and magic. Modern universities, it is argued, have become occult economies, and this study examines the wa…
Spirits in the Marketplace
This article explores perceptions of the market in South and West Africa and in the West, undertaking a comparative study of the occult aspects ascribed to it. This illuminates certain long-standing and contemporary forms of folklore: from specific South and West African mystical beliefs and practices to various present-day magicalities in certain regions in Africa and Western free-market capitalist societies. Moreover, certain African and Wester…
Kinship, collegiality and witchcraft
Certain South African perceptions of sorcery acquire new resonance when considered in the context of present-day corporatised, managerially governed higher education. Concepts of witchcraft from elsewhere in Africa further illuminate this. Indeed, there are certain striking metaphorical parallels between distinctive trends in the contemporary market-driven academic environment and various perceptions of witchcraft. These include the connections b…
Supernatural Cities
Far from being a static or eroding cultural inheritance from the past, the supernatural has continually been appropriated and updated to accommodate and express social, cultural, economic and environmental anxieties. Since the Enlightenment, supernatural beliefs and practices have largely been derided as ignorant and un-modern - even anti-modern - and cities, being the ultimate symbol of progress and rationality, have not been thought to harbour …
The cult of the quantifiable
This paper examines the 'fetishism of numbers' (Gudeman, 1998, p.1) that has taken hold in restructured, market-oriented institutions of higher education. As all areas of academic life have been rendered down to the quantifiable, and university environments have become dominated by the rituals of counting, numbers have been imbued with a potency of almost preternatural proportions. The points of comparison between the power ascribed to the numeri…
The Mythmaking Surrounding Entrepreneurship and the False Promises of the Mamlambo
Contemporary folklore casts light on and is shaped by the socio-economic milieu from which it arises. This article explores one aspect of this: the metaphorical points of comparison between oral accounts of the mamlambo, a South African wealth-giving spirit, and the mythmaking surrounding the idea of entrepreneurship in present-day South Africa. Such notions of entrepreneurship draw on key capitalist narratives, including the idea that financial …
From rain-bringer to wealth-giver
In this article, I explore the spiritual and supernatural aspects of the snake and the ways in which this being has long been associated with various spiritual presences and forces in certain South African belief systems. For instance, Archibald Campbell Jordan’s The Wrath of the Ancestors and some oral narratives from the Eastern Cape province convey positive, benevolent images of the snake as spiritual emissaries, guardians, and guides. Snakes …
Murder Trials and the Dead
Although the focus is very much on the dead during murder trials, the dead themselves are downplayed in various respects. Relegated to the category of the deceased, and reduced to objects for scrutiny by forensic pathologists, police photographers, detectives and the court, the dead are dehumanised. Moreover, the verdict and the sentencing that takes place in the course of the trial, stemming as they do from impersonal legal deliberations, may se…
Sociology (7 obras) · History (6 obras) · History (5 obras) · Law (5 obras) · Political science (5 obras) · Law (4 obras) · African cultural and philosophical studies (3 obras) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (3 obras) · Narrative (3 obras) · Philosophy (3 obras)